


Your Secret's Out

by iprefermymealsdead



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy
Genre: 2006 fall out boy, AU where no one dated anyone in 2006, Black Clouds and Underdogs tour, M/M, Patrick kind of has an anxiety attack, Pre-Hiatus (Fall Out Boy), Title taken from Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying by Fall Out Boy, andy just wants to read his magazine, it just fit best, jenna never edited this so there's probably some grammatical errors, joe is a nosy little prick, mentions of sex but no real smut, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 14:36:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5931946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iprefermymealsdead/pseuds/iprefermymealsdead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“How many of our songs are about Patrick?” He thought maybe if he caught Pete off-guard, he would let something slip. Pete choked on his water. Not quite what Joe was hoping for.<br/>---<br/>It's 2006 and Joe wants to get to the bottom of his friends' weird behavior.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Secret's Out

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any grammatical errors, blame them on Jez.

“Something is wrong with Pete and Patrick,” Joe announced, sitting down across from Andy, one of his best friends. Andy looked up from his magazine and sighed over his glasses. 

“How so?” He asked, not really interested in the conversation, or rather, what he knew was coming next. He knew how conversations like this usually went. Joe approaches Andy with a problem, usually with people they’re close to. Then, he drags Andy into some harebrained plot that just ends up causing more trouble than the original problem. 

“They’ve just been...off recently,” Joe responded, running a calloused hand through his wild hair. The drummer gave an absentminded noise of agreement in an attempt to get Joe to give up the scheme and returned his full attention back to his magazine, scanning an article on a new weight lifting technique popular in Malaysia. Joe waved his hand over the text in annoyance. 

“What?” Andy groaned, setting the magazine down on the table they were both sitting at. 

“This is serious, man. They’re our best friends, we gotta find out what’s going on.” 

“I’m not sure we do.” Joe looked at Andy with wide, pug-like eyes. 

“Please go with me on this,” he whined. “At least give me a chance to show you how bad it is.” Andy sighed in resignation. 

“Fine. What do you mean by ‘off’, then?” Joe’s face lit up and he began to plead his case. 

“Ok, so, for starters, they haven’t been spending as much time together as they usually do, right?” Joe began. This was true, but Andy hadn’t thought much of it. It wasn’t like they were fighting or anything, but there were a lot early turn ins for Pete and solitary late nights with Patrick. “And, every time they talk, it’s always super awkward.” That did get Andy’s attention. He thought back to 2003, a time when Pete and Patrick were so in sync, they practically finished each other’s sentences. An impressive feat considering Patrick was often prone to stuttering in any social situation. Nowadays, their exchanges tended to be all fumbling hands and incomplete phrases. Andy leaned over the table toward Joe, who was eagerly awaiting Andy’s response. 

“Ok, I see your point,” Joe grinned. “ _ But _ , what do you plan on doing about it?” 

“Hear me out,” Andy groaned. “I said, hear me out,” Joe interjected. Andy loved Joe, he really did, but sometimes Joe’s shenanigans were too much for him. Although Pete had proven his recklessness, Patrick was usually able to contain his worst ideas. Joe, on the other hand, was unstoppable. “You take Pete, I take Patrick, we get them to ‘fess up, everything goes back to normal, happy ending!”

“You seem to have forgotten some key details,” Andy said. “First, we have a show in, like, 2 hours. Second, there’s no structure to that plan.” Joe muttered something about how Andy’s mom had no structure, earning a glare from Andy. 

“Is that all, Mr. Dream Killer?” 

“No,” Andy leaned forward. “Confess to what?” Joe gave him a cheeky grin.  

“I’m not sure, but I know it’s gonna be good.” 

\---

This was a great idea. 

The band didn’t have to perform for another couple hours, so Joe decided to make his move now, before they go on stage and Patrick inevitably disappears for hours in an attempt to avoid Pete. Last Joe had heard, Pete was holed up in the bus so chances are that Patrick would be in the dressing room. When Joe walked inside, Patrick was singing  _ I Wanna Be Like You _ from the Jungle Book and pacing the room while sipping something out of a travel mug. He turned to cross the room again mid-chorus, but jumped when he saw his bandmate lurking in the doorway. The singer quickly set his beverage on the counter and rushed to turn off the still blaring iPod. “H-hey, Joe!” The music quit suddenly, leaving an awkward silence between the two while Joe made his way into the room and leaned against the wall. 

“Hey, Pat,” Joe responded casually, mentally devising a plan of action. Joe stepped forward towards Patrick, who was currently standing close to the far right corner of the small room. “How’s it going?” Patrick seemed to sense that Joe was up to something and laughed nervously. 

“Uh, fine, why do you ask?” Patrick was forced to take a step back into the corner. 

“Oh, no reason,” Another step. “Unless there’s something I don’t know about?” Joe added, searching Patrick’s eyes. Patrick was searching the room for an escape, but found himself blocked by Joe and a table covered in a party platter of some sort. At the moment, Joe felt pretty James Bond-y. 

“I-I don’t know what y-you’re talking about.” When you spend as much time together as Patrick and Joe have, it’s pretty easy to tell when a dude is lying. Patrick’s back hit the wall and he gulped nervously. 

“Come on, ‘Trick, tell me.” Patrick sighed in defeat.  _ This is it! _ Joe thought to himself. 

“I…” Patrick looked down at his sneakers.

“What is it?” Joe pushed. Patrick blushed and twisted his hands together. 

“ ~~I like Pete~~ , ” Patrick mumbled, his hushed words going just over Joe’s head. 

“What did you say?” Patrick’s head shot up to look up at Joe. 

“I-I SAID I LIKE TO E-EAT!” With that, Patrick grabbed a fist full of food off the party platter beside Joe and stuffed it all in his mouth. Joe stepped back in confusion and Patrick used this to practically sprint from the room, a piece of lettuce hanging out of his mouth. 

_ What? _

\---

This was a terrible idea. 

Andy had better things to do with his time than become an accomplice in Joe’s awful plan, like finishing that article. Or literally anything else. However, Joe was his friend and sometimes that meant he had to grit his teeth and go along with Joe’s ridiculous ideas. Andy’s pretty sure Joe went to find Patrick in the dressing room, so he decided to begin his search for Pete in the tour bus. When Andy walked into the bus, he was greeted with a large wad of paper thrown in his general direction, missing him only by a couple inches. The bassist was lying on the couch along the opposite wall, ripping pages out of an already torn up notebook. Andy coughed awkwardly and Pete looked up in surprise. Although he hadn’t undergone his beauty routine yet today, Pete’s eyes were thickly lined with eyeliner from previous nights, though his hair was an untamed mess. Pete grumbled something to himself before adjusting his position so that he was sitting up instead of lying on his stomach. “Sorry, Andy.” Andy nodded and sat down on the couch next to him. 

“Uh…” Andy was typically the quiet one of FOB and he prefered it stayed that way, but he had to figure out a way to find out what was going on between Pete and Patrick. “What’s up?” Andy inwardly cringed at his own awkwardness. 

“Um, not much?” Pete wore a confused expression. Andy wasn’t getting anywhere. This called for drastic measures. If Andy played his cards right, he could pick just the right white lie to get Pete to admit to what was going on. 

“I guess you and Patrick are going through a bit of a rough spot, huh?” Andy tried, gauging Pete’s reaction. He shifted uncomfortably on the couch and stared at his hands. 

“Why would you think that?” Andy had to choose his words carefully. 

“Oh,”  He began. “I just noticed things have been getting a little awkward since Patrick started seeing Victoria…” Pete’s face went white. 

“Wait, Victoria Asher?” Pete’s fists were clenched. Maybe Andy had gone a little too far. Oh well, can’t back out now. 

“Yeah, what’s wrong with that?” 

“Nothing, nothing,” Pete looked about ready to explode. Andy felt bad for exploiting his bandmate’s emotions like this, but he had to get the truth out of him. 

“Listen, Pete, is there something going on between you and Patrick?” Pete looked pained, like Andy’s words had just salted the wound his previous statement had already made. 

“I’m gonna go get ready for tonight,” Pete huffed, storming out of the bus towards the venue. Andy looked down at the pile of papers on the floor near the door, including the wad that had almost met Andy’s nose when he first entered the bus. He knew he shouldn’t, but Andy walked back towards the door, picked up the nearest ball, and smoothes out the wrinkles. The scribbled words were difficult to read, but Andy made out something that read like song lyrics. He squinted at the script, eyes widening in realization as words clicked into place. Andy carefully folded it and placed it in his pocket. He needed to show this to Joe.   

\---

Andy took off for the dressing room to try to find Joe at the same time that Joe began to make his way to the bus to try and get Andy’s help in figuring out what Patrick had said. He kept running the mumbled syllables through his brain along with Patrick’s quick recovery and tried to find a phrase that fit both. In fact, Joe was so deep in thought that he didn’t notice Pete Wentz angrily walk by him in the hallway. He also failed to notice Andy walking directly towards him, reading a crumpled up paper and vise versa. The two would have collided had Joe not come to his senses just in time to prevent the accident. Andy snapped his head up in surprise when he realized he’d nearly collided with Joe, but surprise quickly turned into urgency. 

“I think I found out what’s going on!” He whisper-yelled, eyes scanning the hallway looking for Pete. Joe’s eyes went wide. 

“What is it?” He pushed, voice at the same level. “Also, why are we whispering?” Andy waved the paper in front of Joe, nearly clipping his nose because of their close proximity. 

“I got this from Pete,” Andy began. Joe sucked in a breath.

“You stole that from Pete’s notebook?!” He whisper-screamed. Andy motioned for him to shush and looked around again. 

“No, he ripped it out and tried to throw it away, but he totally missed so it was on the floor in front of me and that’s not technically stealing.” Andy’s voice got higher when he was nervous and Joe was pretty sure that Andy’s voice was about 2 semitones away from landing him a career as an operatic soprano. 

“Ok, Andy, calm down,” Joe took the paper from Andy and began trying to decipher the text on it. “What the hell does this say?” 

“I’m not 100% sure at points, but if you look here,” Andy pointed at a line of text in the song. Joe gasped when he saw where Andy was directing his attention. 

“Holy shit, is this a love song about Patrick?” Something clicked in Joe’s brain. “I like Pete,” he whispered to himself. 

“What?” Andy asked, confused. 

“When I talked to Patrick,” Joe began, eyes bright and volume back up to a normal speaking level. “He whispered something to me and tried to cover it up, but I think I just found out what it said!” 

“‘I like Pete’?” Andy asked, confused. Realization hit. “Oh my god, Patrick likes Pete!” 

“And Pete likes Patrick!” Joe exclaimed excitedly. He paused, taking his volume back down. “Wait, are things awkward because they know?” 

“No,” Andy responded. “Pete thinks Patrick is seeing Victoria Asher.” 

“Why does he think that?” Andy paused, looking down at the ground. 

“...I may have told him that to try to figure out what was going on.”

“While I admire your dedication to the cause, now we gotta deal with that.” A stage hand came up behind Joe and tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to jump in surprise. 

“Mr. Trohman, Mr. Hurley, you need to get ready for the show,” they said, politely. Joe nodded and turned back to Andy. 

“Tonight,” He whispered to his accomplice before walking to the dressing room. This’ll be fun. 

\---

Joe decided that best possible course of action was to get Patrick/Pete to admit that they liked Pete/Patrick around Pete/Patrick, but without Patrick/Pete knowing that Pete/Patrick was there when they admitted it. 

It was a lot less complicated than it sounded. 

The hardest part of this plan would be the actual admitting part since, despite the awkward tension between the bandmates, they were still almost inseparable during and right before shows. Pete had once mentioned something to Joe about the stage letting you put down all your barriers, so maybe it was something with that, but it made things a little easier on Joe’s part. When Joe was finished getting ready for the show, he found the rest of his band standing in the spacious and rather loud backstage area talking with some dudes that were dressed like they raided their teen son’s closet in an attempt to fit in. Pete was hanging a little farther back than the other guys, sipping a water bottle. Joe strode up to him and began to work his magic. 

“So,” he started, doing his best to not totally screw this up. “How are you doing?” Pete gave Joe a confused, but slightly concerned expression. 

“We spend almost every hour together, why are you asking me that?” Pete asked. Joe shrugged in fake nonchalance and decided there was no avoiding the question. 

“How many of our songs are about Patrick?” He thought maybe if he caught Pete off-guard, he would let something slip. Pete choked on his water. Not quite what Joe was hoping for. 

“What the hell kind of question is that?” Pete coughed out. Joe contemplated pulling a Patrick and covering it up, but he suspected that only worked if you whispered your original statement. 

“I dunno, you two are really close, I thought maybe there was a song about your friendship or something,” he recovered. Pete relaxed a little and took another swig of water. 

“Oh, that makes sense.” 

“What did you think I meant?” Pete gave Joe a sidelong glare. 

“Well, most of our songs are about romance and stuff…” He trailed off. 

“Hey, I wouldn’t judge if it was like that.” Joe was trying (and failing) at getting Pete to say anything remotely close to a declaration of love. 

“It’s not,” Pete responded shortly, annoyance creeping into his voice. “Why do you even want to know?” Joe got an idea. 

“I probably shouldn’t say this…” Joe started. Pete looked up at him with curiosity. 

“Say what?” 

“It’s just,” Joe paused for dramatic effect. “Patrick asked me to ask you that.” Pete’s face lit up. 

“Wait, really?” He inquired, moving closer to Joe.  _ Bingo! _

“Yeah,” Joe replied, sounded defeated. “He won’t tell me why, but he was pretty anxious to get an answer.” Pete glanced to Patrick, who was still talking to Andy and the oddly dressed dudes. Pete’s mouth split into a wide grin as he turned back to Joe. 

“Tell him there’s a couple,” Pete whispered, punctuating his sentence with a wink. Joe began to walk back to Patrick to try to see if he could pull something similar with him, but he felt Pete’s hand grab his wrist. “Wait-” 

“What?”

“What about Victoria?” Concern and longing filled Pete’s eyes. Joe knew this would come back to haunt his plan. Dammit, Andy.  _ Think fast. _

“Oh, didn’t you hear? Just tabloid gossip.” Joe mentally high fived himself. Pete’s been in plenty of tabloid relationships before, he wouldn’t question it for a second. Relief flooded Pete’s face and he let go of Joe’s wrist. Joe nodded and slid into Patrick and Andy’s huddle just as the other men left. 

“Hey, Joe,” Patrick said, nervously. 

“Hey, ‘Trick, did you grab something to eat before the show?” Joe joked. Patrick’s cheeks turned a deep crimson color as he chuckled nervously. Andy gave Joe a weird look, but Joe brushed it off. 

“Y-yeah,” Patrick replied. 

“I was just talking to eat- I mean _Pete_ ,” Joe said, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. Patrick’s face went white and his eyes grew to the size of saucers. 

“Andy, c-can you excuse us?” Patrick asked, eyes remaining locked with Joe’s. Andy shrugged, put his hands up in surrender, and walked over to a table covered in water bottles. 

“Pat, look, I-” Joe started, but Patrick cut him off.

“Don’t,” he interjected shortly. “You can’t say anything. To anyone. Ever. This could ruin my relationship with Pete, hell, this could break up the band.” Patrick took off his hat and ran his hands through his disheveled hair. “Oh, god, this could break up the band,” he wheezed. Joe put his hands on Patrick’s shoulders. 

“Patrick, calm down, this won’t break up the band,” Patrick breathed into his hands. Joe glanced back at Pete, who was watching with concern. Joe gave him a fake smile and a thumbs up, which seemed to confuse Pete more than reassure him. 

“Pete’s gonna find out, he probably already knows,” Patrick sucked in a breath and looked back up at Joe. “That must be why he keeps staring at me!” He exclaimed, looking like he was about to cry. 

“Patrick!” Joe cried as Patrick put his head back in his hands. “Pete likes you too!” Patrick sniffled and looked up. 

“W-What?” 

“Yeah, I was trying to be a little less obvious, you know, so you two could tell each other ‘n all, but we have a show to do and I don’t think the audience wants you to be violently sobbing every time Pete comes anywhere close to you.” Patrick looked back to where Pete was standing, Pete giving Patrick a cute little wave. Joe’s not quite sure what Patrick saw in the guy. He wore a little too much makeup, tended to dress like the _Lizzie McGuire_ costume department vomited on Gerard Way, and spent the majority of the day moping, but Joe was talking about a guy who owned about 50 different hats. Joe gestured for Pete to come over to where he and Pete were standing. Patrick hastily wiped his eyes as the bassist walked over to them. Joe took a step towards Patrick and put a hand around his shoulder. 

“Uh, hi ‘Trick…” Pete started, blushing and staring at his feet, but grinning all the same. 

“I’m gonna go, I get the feeling that you two have a lot to talk about.” Joe winked at Patrick, nodded to Pete, and turned to find Andy. He found him lurking in the corner trying not to talk to anyone standing around the area. Joe walked over to the back wall and leaned against it, crossing his arms. 

“How’d it go? I thought I saw Patrick crying for a second,” Andy asked, peering at Joe over his glasses. Joe chuckled.

“Don’t worry, it’s all gonna work out,” Joe reassured him. Andy rolled his eyes. 

“I never doubted you for a second.” 

\---

The show ended up going well. Pete was closer to Patrick than ever, the highlight of the night being when Pete whispered something to Patrick that made him stutter on the lyrics of the song. The nice thing about this stop on the tour is that there was enough time between this show and the next one to stay in a hotel. Pete and Patrick managed to stay pretty tame on the way there, though Patrick’s hand was resting dangerously far up Pete’s thigh. Andy mostly kept his head down, trying to finish reading through the magazine that Joe had interrupted him from reading earlier. When they pulled up to the hotel, almost everyone on the tour went down to the hotel bar to grab a drink, but Andy usually tried to stay away from social events like that. Besides, he picked up a novel off Chris Gaylor that he wanted to start, so he headed up to his room pretty early. For hotels (and really any type of accommodations)  Pete and Andy shared a room and Patrick and Joe shared a room. That’s just how it’s always been, which is why Andy was so surprised when Joe knocked on the door to Andy’s hotel room at 3 am. As soon as Andy answered it, Joe was pushing his way in the room and collapsed face first on Pete’s bed, groaning. He was wearing an old The Damned Things t-shirt, boxers, and the kind of expression a kid has when they walking in on their parents having sex. “Uh…” Was all Andy could say. 

“Sex, dude,” Joe replied, voice muffled by the mattress. He pulled himself up and turned so that he was facing Andy, who was still standing frozen by the door. “They’re fucking doing it in my hotel room.” 

“Wait, who?” Andy asked, 99% sure Patrick was the kind of dude that had a secret promise ring tucked away somewhere. 

“Pete and Patrick, who do you think?” Joe lied back down on the bed and rubbed his face with his hands. Andy just shrugged and climbed back into his own bed. “I just changed and got the hell out of there ASAP.” 

“You’re welcome to stay here, but there’s something I gotta tell you first,” Andy said as he clicked off the bedside lamp. 

“What?” 

“This is all your fault.” Joe threw a pillow at Andy. 


End file.
